There's still a lot of time before the draft for him to either continue down this path or perhaps seek help. But at this point, with the drug rumors appearing to be validated in addition to all other mental issues he may have, he'd be a UDFA at best. It's one thing to have done drugs, it's another to already be on a downward spiral of addiction before he even enters the NFL.

This pretty much obliterates his stock. There's a slim chance someone uses a real late pick on him, but there's just too much here for a guy that wasn't a certain thing on the field either(although he's certainly talented). The NFL has proven time and again they'll look the other way to an extent with substance issues(although less with coke) provided they don't keep you from playing. Lyerla leaving Oregon and immediately getting popped with this casts serious doubt on that.

There's just so much going on here. He had some real nasty, dumb things to say about Sandy Hook on Twitter that I wasn't aware of until recently either.

...and again, he's clearly very talented, but it's not like he was a surefire insta-stud tight end either. He's raw, relatively unproved, and has some serious issues. At this stage, he just doesn't seem to be the kind of guy you want on your team.

Here's a pretty good article that I hadn't read about Lyerla's struggles, specifically an incident where he attacked three people and the victims said he seemed stoned or drunk out of his mind (now I'm guessing coked out of his mind is another option). The article also touches on his personal life, apparently he began to spiral out of control or became agitated when his parents got divorced and his dad left the state without telling him. There were also reports of him being late for practice.

I know there's a ton of time until the draft but this kid's got a rap sheet that makes him undraftable in my opinion. Cocaine, assault allegation (charges were dropped), tweets about Sandy Hook conspiracy, doesn't show remorse and stands by it by retweeting his supporters, late to practices allegedly, and shows insubordination by going out of his way to talk to the press and question his head coach. The risk reward is easy to evaluate in this situation, he's not worth it.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Quote:

Thurston told Ware there were other people in the area, but they all left so they would not be attacked by Lyerla. According to Thurston, after the incident Lyerla disappeared into the darkness.

He'll get a chance somewhere. He has until April to show that he is serious about getting help and making it in the NFL. There are guys that have done far worse things playing Sundays than he has. There will just be very specific language in his UDFA contract. He lost himself millions of dollars, sure, but not every hope at the NFL. Guy still has immense talent. It'd be a little bit different if we were talking about Connor Shaw or someone.

I'm trying to think of a player that had this much baggage coming into the draft. Just to recap:

Cocaine Arrest

Incident where he attacked three people while under the influence of something and everybody ran away because they were scared

Late to practices

Went to media to lash out at his head coach

Posted insensitive tweets about a Sandy Hook cover up and didn't see why it was insensitive or offensive, didn't back down from his statement

Tyrann Mathieu had a weed problem which I don't think compares to this. Maurice Clarett's off the field activities before and attitude were pretty bad. Dez Bryant had some off the field issues too. Marcus Thomas from Florida is another guy that comes to mind. But I can't think of anyone that had this many issues, the assault, cocaine, and coach's nightmare is the trifecta. One of those issues makes your stock fall, he's got all three.

Athletes with cocain is sort of a 70s/80s problem. It's nice to see somebody doing it old shool. LOL

Cocaine is still widely used. It gets out of your system so quickly that catching anyone with a drug test is highly unlikely. There was a guy on another forum who claimed he worked at a big Las Vegas club and saw Josh Freeman partying and coked out all the time.

I'd still absolutely take him. Coke is cool. I like cool people. Kyle Long and Patrick Kane do/did a lot of coke and those guys are awesome. I'd take Colt and hope he learns to express his coolness in other ways.